Trump Administration Cuts Funding for HIV Cure Research Due to Stem Cell Research Opposition

Last week, the Trump administration enacted yet another cut
to HIV/AIDS funding, this time targeting research: the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), the Washington Postreported,
would no longer financially support a research lab in California working to
move us closer to an HIV cure or vaccine. Anti-choice proponents, who are
enjoying more influence than in recent years because of allies in Congress and
the White House, sought to end this and other NIH contracts because of their
concerns about the use of fetal tissue, collected from elective abortions, in
the research.

The lab at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
has produced prominent research in the history of the HIV epidemic: as the Post
writes, “Almost every drug for treating or preventing HIV infection has been
tested at the UCSF laboratory and an affiliate.” The researchers do so by using
fetal tissue of a thymus gland – which produces T cells that protect against
HIV replicating in the body – to grow the same gland inside mice to test
various chemical compounds that later become HIV prevention or management
drugs.

Anti-choice advocates have successfully encouraged federal
agency heads and lawmakers to reconsider the well established research practice
of using fetal tissue; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
announced in September that it would review all such contracts, and the UCSF
lab is not the first affected by these policy shifts. A smaller contract with a
nonprofit called Advanced Bioscience Resources was
ended earlier this year due to their work with fetal tissue. While HHS
contends that no final decisions have been made writ large about the use of
fetal tissue in federally funded research, the abrupt ending of these contracts
– particularly the multimillion dollar one with the UCSF lab – worries health
and science advocates, despite HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett
Giroir’s assertion that Trump’s is a “pro-life, pro-science administration.”

AIDS United stands with our clinical colleagues against
ideologically driven research agendas and with the larger sexual &
reproductive health community against the demonization of necessary medical
procedures and research. We urge the Administration to restore the vital
funding and evidence-based research practices. Check back to the Policy Update
regularly for the latest on HIV policy, funding, and research.

UPDATE: The administration responded to the Washington Post report on December 5 in a comment posted to Twitter:

Department statement on inaccurate Washington Post story on the Department’s review of fetal tissue contracts: pic.twitter.com/5RgxUalRYB